“ Global software Development and Collaboration: Barriers and Solutions ” Authors: John Noll, Sarah Beecham , and I ta Richardson Pr e se nte r : Kasahun Abdisa IT Doc tor al pr ogr am Addis Ababa University e-mail: kasabd97@gmail.com 1
Outlines Overview Introduction Purpose of the paper Research questions Context Research Method Result of the study Limitation of the study Conclusion Future Direction 2
Overview Global Software Development (GSD): is the process of developing software in globally distributed environment GSD has various advantages to organizations Currently, it is common for developers to collaborate from various sites while developing a software systems. However, this collaboration is accompanied by various challenges mainly: collaboration barriers experienced by stakeholders of that organization participating in the system development 3
Purpose of the study To clearly understand potential barriers to collaboration in GSD to pin point specific practices that show how organizations can overcome these barriers To contributes to the GSD body of knowledge by refining empirical findings in identifying the best ways to address the problems in GSD 4
Introduction Current global economy demands software engineers to operate in a globally distributed environment. Distributed environment is characterized by different geographic, temporal, cultural and linguistic difference Limited developers physical interaction Limited shared understanding among the developers The existing CMMI process models can not address this GSD challenges 5
Introduction…..cont Four practices associated with GSD collaboration; These are collaboratively : 1. Identify common goals, objectives and rewards. 2. Establish and maintain the work product ownership, boundaries among interfacing locations. 3. Establish and maintain interfaces and processes for the exchange of inputs, outputs, or work products. 4. Develop, communicate and distribute among interfacing teams the commitment lists and work plans that are related to the work product or team interfaces. However, there are ,many factors that impede organizations to implement these four practices in GSD 6
Introduction…..cont But why GSD? what drives it? GSD choice is attributed to: highly skilled software engineers in low cost locations Bringing software development close to emerging markets(consumers) 7
Research questions The aim of the study is to better understand barriers and solutions to GSD In doing so, the paper undertook survey of the GSD literature that addresses two research questions: What barriers prevent software development teams from effectively collaborating in a global environment? And, what solutions address these barriers to collaboration? 8
Context of the problem The study was conducted within the context of virtual teams and virtual organization When we talk about virtual organizations we refer to Virtual team Virtual Team s VS Traditional Team Traditional team group of individuals who are collocated and interdependent in their tasks Coordinate activity and share responsibility to achieve goal Virtual teams Same as traditional team But operate across differen t geographic, temporal, organizational 9 multicultural, multilingual environment boundaries .
Context… I m plem entation of a virtual team strategy The center of the strategy is “cost-based decision” Aims at linking technical skills and experience of staff located in a high-cost centre with engineers in a low-cost location. short-term strategy used simply as a knowledge transfer exercise(training, experience sharing) long-term objective sustained support will be required for team members at all locations Factors that dictate choice of remote site access to local knowledge or proximity to the customer base Virtual team geographically distributed teams with task interdependence . Distributed team 10 geographically distributed teams but with no task i nterdependence
The Global Teaming Model(GTM) successful software project management is a function of: effective planning, organizing, staffing, leading, controlling coordinating and day-to-day management of the project Is constrained by factors like available resources(financial and technological) management personnel and technical capabilities Project management becomes more complex in GSD due to Management of virtual team across the site coordinating their task language, culture project coordination , control and visibility problems GSD challenges cannot be dealt with structured process models like CMMI 11
GTM……cont Introduced to provide process guidance to organizations embarking on a GSD effort and fill the gap of CMMI has two specific goals : “ Define Global Project Management” and “Define Management Between Locations.” 12
Research Methods The study employed Systematic review using B.Kitchenham guidelines with the following steps Identify the need for a systematic literature review 1. Carry out a search for relevant studies 2. Formulate review research question(s) 3. Assess and record the quality of included studies 4. Classify data needed to answer the research question(s) 5. Extract data from each included study 6. Summarize and synthesize study results (meta-analysis) 7. Interpret results to determine their applicability 8. Write-up study as a report 9. 13
Research method….cont I tem s Description Need for No comprehensive survey so far in software engineering literature that address the research questions the review Research RQ1: What are the barriers that prevent software development teams from collaborating in a global Questions environment? RQ2: What solutions are there to addressing the barriers to collaboration, as identified in the literature? Search String : “Global Software Development” AND “Collaboration” Boolean search IEEEXplore bibliographic database Source : … Result: 32 references returned ; 6 non relevant; hence 26 final list The follow ing inclusion and exclusion criteria used to filter paper for analysis Docum ent 1. Directly answ er either ( or both) of our research questions Selection 2. W ere published betw een January, 2000 and October, 2009 3. W ere em pirical studies 4. W ere full research papers published in a journal or conference 14 proceedings
Research method….cont I tem s Description Data Extraction, Each paper is examined to extract : • Study aims or research question Meta-analysis, and • Identified barriers to collaboration Interpretation • Identified solutions to the barriers • Other results relevant to the study • Potential themes emerging from the study’s conclusions Results Analysis of 26 papers revealed various barriers to GSD and various solutions to overcome 15
Result Analyzed 26 selected papers and spotted both barriers and solution to GSD 1. Barriers The study reported Eight basic barrier category to the four collaboration practices enumerated in GTM as follows: geographic distance temporal distance (different time zones ) differences in language and culture fear and trust problems stemming from organizational structure, process issues infrastructure barrier product architecture barrier. 16
Result…(Barrier )….cont Barrier Description No informal contact Geographic Distance No personal relationships no “awareness” of remote teams participating on Global project Affect shared understanding about issues like requirements Also increases organizational complexity different time zones Temporal Result in fewer hours of work day for synchronous meeting Distance delay in response to asynchronous communication Result in mean delay of 2.5 times that of collocated[ 21] Teams not confident in language prefer instant message than Culture and interacting directly with users over phone or others Language Instant message: No visual (auditory)interaction to understand each Limit teams idea expression Feel being dominated Shift to asynchronous Language interpretation problem(eg polite) due to culture affects interpretation of requirements(domain context) lack of informal face-to-face Fear and Trust Result in no personal relationship Leads to lack of trust fearful of their job security Mistrust of management motives 17 a negative impression of the remote team’s competence when something misses or is late
Result…(Barrier) ….cont Barrier Description Lack of informal communication about process changes Organization, change management might be applied differently at some Process, and sites Managem ent I ncompatible process at different sites I nstant failure of infrastructures are consequential I nfrastructure E.g. disruption of telephone,internet,video conference weak knowledge management infrastructure problem I ncompatible data repositories (risk of data loss when data moves from one source to the other) Architecture that changes frequently and not Product communicated Architecture Lead to system integration problem at the end Some times ownership competition may happen among teams(for high visible systems) 18
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